Chapter 100: The Day Before the Storm (2)

Chapter 100: The Day Before
the Storm (2)

“What
the hell happened⋯”

Her
voice was shaking slightly.

Her
hands wandered as if she didn’t know what to do with the sudden
situation.

The
air seemed to vibrate somehow, perhaps due to the intensifying
emotions.

Diana’s
entire body glowed blue, and a chill emanated from her.

Unlike
Ellie, who could wield fire magic, Diana exuded a bitter chill.

Her
cynical eyes looked like they could turn the stunned outlaws into
frozen humans in an instant.

“It’s
okay, Ms. Diana.”

I
looked at her and opened my mouth to speak.

“It
was no big deal, I’m fine.”

“⋯⋯”

Diana
barely caught her breath as I spoke again.

The
chill that had been radiating from her had faded.

She
cautiously moved to my side, her eyes dripping with worry.

I
explained the situation to her in a reasonable manner.

When
she heard that I had subdued the drunken outlaws, her face hardened.

“That’s
a big deal. Are you okay? Are you hurt?!”

“I’m
fine, it was only against some third-rate thugs.”

I
stood up, pounding my chest with my fist to show I was fine.

The
vibrations in my pectoralis major muscle sent an earthquake through
Diana’s eyes. I laughed as she closed her eyes in panic.

I
realized that I was the one who had the problem.

“Ah.
Clothes.”

I
skillfully subdued the dwarf, but the dirt kicked up and stained my
pristine suit.

“I
apologize for the mess.”

“I’m
sorry, I can always buy you another suit, and you are far more
important to me than this one.”

The
words stunned me, and I turned to look at Diana.

Her
face was flushed with worry, and her cheeks were slightly warmed.

I
felt a little flattered and stroked the back of her neck with my
hand.

It
was quite embarrassing.

“Wow⋯
that’s how you get a guy on your side⋯”

The
guard platoon leader, who had been eavesdropping on the conversation
next to us, expressed her admiration.

Diana
and I coughed in unison.

“Hmph.
Isn’t that the end of the story?”

“Ah,
yes. As I said before, I would appreciate it if you could come to the
guard station as soon as possible, then.”

The
guard platoon leader gave the guards the withdrawal sign.

The
group of guards left, leaving the mauled dwarf and the human outlaw
on the ground.

The
onlookers gradually dispersed as the incident came to a close.

“So,
barkeep. Are you open for business today?”

To
be fair, only those who were interested in the case dispersed.

The
customers, who were about to enjoy a meal with Diana’s cooking,
turned to her with sullen faces and pleading eyes.

Diana
smiled bitterly and looked at the ingredients on the dirt floor.

“Mmm…
I’m afraid we don’t have any mains, but I can serve you some
appetizers.”

“That’s
enough! Open the door!”

“Sake!
Sake! Sake! Sake! Let’s drink and die!”

Diana
opened the door to the inn, and the excited patrons shouldered their
way to the tables, dancing in unison.

It
was more than Diana could handle on her own so I brushed as much dirt
off my suit as I could and turned to Diana.

“Let
me help you, too.”

“No,
thank you, I’m fine, I’ll take it easy today-”

“Kkhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

The
guests who had been dancing excitedly just moments before coughed
urgently.

Their
eyes flicked to my suit-clad body.

“Well,
ma’am, as a fellow female, there are certain manners.”

“When
would we day laborers ever accept a drink from a man like that,
please have mercy on us, master.”

Diana
looked down at her guests with a sour expression, then turned to me
with a nonchalant face.

“You
don’t have to do this, Balkan. Go upstairs and get some rest.”

Diana
pushed me off her back and up the stairs.

“We’re
entitled to a drink from a dick in a suit, too!”

Over
the shouting from down the bar, a smiling Diana looked up at me.

“I’m
sorry you had a rough night, especially at the end⋯”

“It
was no big deal, so don’t take it too hard. I was having fun.”

We
looked at each other for a moment and smiled.

“Yeah.
Take it easy, good night. Balkan.”

“Yep.
You too, Diana.”

A
bright-eyed Diana looked at me the whole way down the stairs of the
inn.

I
entered my room, stripped off my suit, and flopped down on the bed.

I
closed my eyes quietly, listening to the muffled laughter of the
banquet.

The
tumultuous day was coming to an end.

***

A
dark night.

The
Blues Clan’s building stood in the entertainment district of the
Outlaw District.

At
the highest point of the building, a woman with several male slaves
at her side slammed a table at the top of her voice.

“Fuck!
The elite have been taken again?!”

“Hey.
Vesta. Did I take those guys? I just saw them being taken away by the
guards. They were already being taken away when I saw them.”

The
dark elf Nuer smirked at Vesta, the leader of Clan Blues.

Nuer
made no mention of the helmeted man who had defeated the elite.

To
be fair, it was obvious where the sparks would land.

‘He’s
an interesting fellow, but I can’t let him be enslaved.’

Noir
remembered the man in front of the inn.

The
way he’d beaten up the outlaws with such gutsy toughness, he wasn’t
bad at all.

“Someone
of your caliber would have been able to subdue any number of guards
and bring them back, wouldn’t you?”

“What
did you expect me to do when I found your men drunk and disorderly in
front of Diana Ordia’s inn?”

Vesta
stiffened at the words.

No
matter how forgotten a person was, their name meant something to
those who lived in the same era.

“I
suppose it was unavoidable, and I apologize for yelling. I’ve been
hearing a lot of bad news lately.”

It
started with the death of someone who seemed promising, the fire mage
Deluna.

It’s
a shame to lose a mage, but she died in the Labyrinth, so I suppose
it can’t be helped.

Next
came the capture of Kurumi, a clan officer, and Reichem, a mage
recruited from the Academy.

This
was a loss far beyond that of Deluna.

The
simultaneous loss of such important and capable personnel was
catastrophic.

Especially
since Reichem had been recruited by Vesta herself.

It
had happened just a few days before, and now they’d lost the elite
troops right under their leadership.

But
Vesta’s misfortune didn’t end there.

“Vesta!!!”

While
Vesta was lost in thought, a member of the Blues Clan burst through
the door with a shocked look on his face.

“This
bastard came in without knocking?!”

“I’m
sorry, it’s an urgent matter, the Third Slave House is being
attacked!”

“What?!
What kind of bastard dares!”

“That,
that. It’s a mid-tier explorer from Wind Valley and a nameless black
short-haired maiden! With our current troop level, we can’t stop
them⋯”

A
fairy archer and a maiden?

It
was a bizarre combination that would never meet except in the most
unlikely of circumstances.

“Call
in all the bitches you can spare and stop them. There’s only two of
them at most!”

“Yes,
yes!”

The
members rushed out of the room.

Vesta
felt like a shipwreck floating in the ocean with the news coming at
her like waves.

She
felt cornered.

‘Damn
it. Why now, when the delivery is due soon⋯!’

There
were not enough slaves to supply [them].

When
you don’t have enough slaves, you have to make do with the quality of
the slaves.

But
unless you kidnap someone or beat them into submission, it’s not easy
to get quality slaves.

As
she pondered this, she remembered something she had thought about but
never acted on because the stakes were too high.

A
plan that was both risky and tempting, a plan that was made even more
so by the recruitment of Reichem.

It’s
almost time for the Academy’s grand banquet, the graduation ceremony.

‘⋯Being
hunted by the Academy is better than being annihilated by [them].’

Her
vision narrows and her rational judgment is clouded.

A
calmer mind might have come to a different conclusion, but Vesta
could only see one number.

“⋯⋯”

The
dark elf, Nuer, looked down at Vesta wordlessly, then quietly left
the room.

Once
out on the deserted streets, the red lights and moonlight of the
red-light district cast shadows under his feet.

“Miao-”

She
mimicked the sound of a small cat, and Nuer’s shadow wriggled and
morphed into the form of a black cat.

“Meow-”

The
black cat emerged from the shadows.

Nuer
leaned down and tied a note to the black cat’s front paw.

“It
looks like [those guys] will be surfacing again soon, Alliance
Leader.”

The
black cat’s red eyes narrowed at Nuer’s words, and it melted into his
shadow once more.

The
dark elf sighed, finally relaxing.

“Huh.
Another one today~”

Nuer,
the shadow of the Explorers’ Alliance, the elite spy, slipped into
the darkness.

Her
skin was black, so she could easily blend into the darkness and
disappear.

***

Diana
sat at the desk in her room, staring at the artifact she’d purchased
in the Outlaw District, a small silver ring.

The
artifact, which slowly erect her nipples, worked to desensitize her
mammary glands and slow the development of her milk.

This
helped to somewhat suppress the effects of the Breast Milk Stat Drain
Curse.

It
was also meant to prevent her from weakening herself.

It
makes sense to put it on. It’s the right thing to do.

-It’s
okay.

“⋯⋯”

But
why?

-I’m
fine, Diana.

She
hesitated to put the ring on.

Flashes
of the outlaws and of Balkan, who had fought them and left them
dusty, flashed through my mind.

Every
time he entered the labyrinth, she was reminded of Balkan’s torn and
pierced armor and the way he tried to cover his wounds.

Hardship
and adversity are inevitable when you choose the path of an explorer.

And
along the way, there is a very high probability of death.

Balkan
is growing rapidly, he is a far cry from what he was when she first
encountered him in the back alleys.

‘Still,
he’s not particularly strong.’

At
least from Diana’s perspective, Balkan was still weak.

Diana’s
eyes drifted to the bucket of water beside her.

A
bucket filled with her own breast milk.

Diluted
with her own power, it was the densest fluid a woman could produce.

At
the sight of it, her breasts throbbed, the same breasts that had been
so mercilessly ravaged by Balkan’s milking.

An
addictive pleasure bubbled up from one side of her chest.

Balkan
milking would weaken her but it makes him stronger.

It
also meant he would be safer.

Diana,
faced with the hellish multiple choice question, closed her eyes
tightly.

Is
it her own destruction or⋯The
safety of the man she loved.

After
much deliberation, Diana set the breast milk suppression artifact
down in her desk drawer.

“⋯Just
a little bit.
Just a little bit later⋯”

She
mumbled something apologetic and closed the drawer.

For
now, it would be okay to hold off on using it.

***

The
next day Diana served breast milk coffee.